Duty and Honor
by Flamezgyrl
Summary: Standard KA fic, another woman found in the dungeon, this one is Guinevere's right hand, a silent scout. Pairings TBA.
1. Chapter 1

disclaimer: I don't own King Arthur or any part of the movie, all I own is the character Kat. This is technically my second story, but I never went past my first chapter on my first story. So this is more like my first. Anyways, on with the story.

Torture and Introductions

Arthur and his knights found Lucan and Guinevere, and were about to leave when Dagonet noticed Lucan looking for something and horsely whispered the name "Kat". Guinevere weakly raised her head searching as well. Lancelot turned to the monk and asked if there were any more people left alive. After having his life threatened, the monk hesitantly led Lancelot and Gawain to another chamber where a girl hung limply from chains around her wrists. Only the movement of her sunken eyes gave away the fact that she was alive. Lancelot broke the chains and Gawain carried her to the surface. At the surface she was given water and wrapped in someone cloak. It was only then that the knights got their first good look at her.

She was thin and pale; her body covered with scars from her neck down, some newer than others. Most of her joints appeared to have been displaced, and her back and knuckles covered in blood. Behind her ragged red hair her blue eyes were serious and observant. Despite her wounds and weakness there was a sense of strength about her .

Gawain carried her to the wagon that Lucan and Guinevere were placed. As he laid her down they locked eyes for a moment, a cough from Galahad pulled Gawain away. The caravan slowly started moving away from the town and the dungeon. Dagonet and Fulcinia did their best to tend to the wounds of the tortured three. The girl refused to be helped til both Lucan and Guinevere were taken care of. Most of the knights made at least a brief appearance near the wagon. Arthur was with them when Dagonet finally was allowed to tend to the girl. Aside from the endless cuts and bruises, and malnutrition, there were large gashes on her back presumably from a whip and many of her body's joints were displaced. Her hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and every finger had been pushed or pulled out of place. Tristan rode up with a report on the Saxon's progress and entered the wagon. Dagonet asked for the two men's help holding her while he pushed all her joints back in place. They started with her hips, even though the pain was intense she made not a sound. She merely clenched her teeth and grimaced. As they moved on to her shoulders Tristan gave her an arrow shaft to bite on. Slowly they put her joints back in place. Halfway through Dagonet asked if she wanted them to stop, she shook her head and they continued on. Once finished she weakly removed the arrow shaft from her mouth which she had almost bitten through. Slowly and weakly she moved between Lucan and Guinevere. She looked over each fondly, and once content that they were both safe she fell asleep.

She awoke sometime later to see Dagonet holding Lucan and talking to him, trying to sooth his fears. His typically rough exterior had melted into one of tender gentleness. He noticed she was awake and watching him, and caught her eye. Her serious looking softened and she weakly smiled and Dagonet returned the smile. She settled once again and drifted back to sleep.

The caravan had made camp for the night and the knights were gathered around a camp fire. Lucan was lying in Dagonet's lap wrapped up in all Dagonet could find him. The knights spoke of many things, but eventually the conversation turned to the silent girl.

"It's bad enough when they're silent when you fight them, but never making a sound is insane" Galahad ranted after hearing of the girl's silence.

"Guinevere speaks, it's just that one" Lancelot said casting a glance at the wagon where Arthur was with the two woad women.

"Do we even know her name, or do we just call her the woad woman or something" Gawain asked. A weak voice came from the bundle on Dagonet's lap.

"Kat" Lucan whispered.

"That's what he said in the dungeon when he was looking around, that must be her name" Gawain stated.

"It is" a new voice agreed as Arthur joined his knights.

"She spoke?" asked Galahad with disbelief.

"Not to me, but Guinevere says she can and just chooses not to. Perhaps when she is more comfortable around the men who her people had been trying to kill for over 15 years, she will decide to speak to us" Arthur replied.

"She doesn't speak much even to my people" Guinevere stated as she joined them, just after she sat down Kat appeared behind her silently. Everyone but Guinevere and Tristan appeared startled. She nodded in greeting to everyone and leaned against a tree behind Guinevere watching everything.

Galahad started stupidly at Kat until he exclaimed confusedly, "Those are my clothes." Kat smirked and winked at him before looking at Arthur for an explanation.

"Yes, well, apparently Kat refused to wear a dress and would rather wear her destroyed and decrepit woad garments, so to keep her warm I loaned her one of your tunics. Oh and Gawain's spare pants" Arthur explained. Before any of the knights could speak Guinevere spoke.

"She's a scout, one of our best. To her dresses make no sense and only get in her way when she is trying to do her job" she explained.

"Well, that settles it" Bors chimed in joyfully, "Kat will have to join us at the fire seeing as how she's looking like a knight now." Kat raised an eyebrow at this statement and looked to Guinevere who nodded before she sat in between Guinevere and Gawain. The conversations continued, but her gaze was drawn elsewhere. Marius was gathered around another campfire with many of his mercenaries where they spoke in hushed tones and stared at the knights, Guinevere and herself. With a nod to Guinevere Kat rose and stepped away from the campfire, silently grabbing a bow and full quiver as she vanished into the forest. Once out of sight she prepared to climb a tree when Tristan stopped her.

"I know they're up to something, but you can't just kill them," he said. The look on her face said 'watch me' and she started climbing the tree.

"If we don't get Marius and his family to the wall, then we'll never be free, none of us" Tristan said, "they'll kill us all and then leave the Saxons to destroy your people. Everyone will die."

"He touches Lucan or Guinevere, he's dead" Kat said, her voice as cold as ice.


	2. Chapter 2

Again, I don't own any of the characters in King Arthur. I own Kat and some later characters.

Attacks & Explanations

Tristan looked back to the fire, then shook his head and started after Kat, "They'd kill me if they found out I let her roam around the forest and get hurt" he thought. He started after her. Not too far in a hand covered his mouth and he was spun around to face Kat. She put a finger to her lips to signify silence then uncovered his mouth. She motioned him to follow her as she climbed up into a tree. Going across the tree tops they soon saw the light of another campfire. Seven Saxons and a Briton were gathered around talking and eating. Kat signed to Tristan to wait as she loaded an arrow. After firing the first one she moved silently among the trees shooting. After hesitating for a moment at her skill Tristan began to shoot arrows as well, though he did not have her ability to move around the trees. It was not long until all seven Saxons were dead, the Briton, however, ran at the first arrow. Kat returned to Tristan and smirked at him with his bow as they climbed down to the ground.

"Couldn't let you have all the fun, I only took 2 from you" he said. She smiled and nodded, then staggered. Tristan was quick enough to catch her; he picked her up and carried her back to camp. She weighed so little after her time in the dungeon so he was not even winded when they came to the camp. He quickly checked for new injuries and after finding none, he wrapped her in his cloak and gently placed her in the wagon. As he walked away he heard a faint "thank you" coming from no where. Before going back into the forest he told Dagonet to check on the girl.

Dagonet entered the wagon with Lucan sleeping in his arms. He gently placed the chid down and turned to Kat. She seemed to be sleeping, but before he could touch her, her eyes opened and met with his. "Are you alright?" Dagonet asked, "Tristan told me that you collapsed. You haven't injured yourself have you?"

Kat shook her shook her head.. Then looked to where Lucan was sleeping fitfully. Lucan tossed and turned and whimpered, but before Dagonet could reach him Kat had already moved to his side and scooped the child into her arms. Dagonet watched as the silent scout soothed the shaken Lucan. "Is he yours?" he asked. Kat shook her head.

"She saved me," Lucan said from Kat's arms, "from the bad place. Every time they took me to hurt me, she saved me. She'd yell at them and taunt them and then they'd put me back and hurt her some more. But she'd never scream out." Dagonet looked at Kat

"Why would you do that for someone you never met?" Dagonet asked looking over Kat. Kat looked at Lucan who nodded at her. With a deep breath she opened her mouth.

"He's just a child," she stated her voice surprising Dagonet, "I couldn't stand for it. I couldnt' stand for Guinevere being tortured either. They didn't do much to either of them until I was too weak to protect them further.

"How noble," Dagonet started only to be interrupted by Kat.

"It wasn't noble, it was selfish. It's my job to protect Guinevere, but more than that I couldn't bear to see any harm come to either of them. They're both so innocent," she said looking at the boy in her arms. She held Lucan til he had fallen asleep again, then passed the sleeping child to the gentle giant. The man had Lucan's trust, so Kat was willing to give him a chance. They spoke quietly for sometime. Mostly they spoke about their current situation, but Dagonet spoke some on his past. When he asked about Kat's past she looked sad for a moment then said that it was a tale for another time. Then she glanced at the sleeping boy and suggested that Dagonet put him to bed since Guinevere would be returning soon. Dagonet agreed and moved to leave.

When he got to the edge Kat spoke, "thank you. For everything. Tell the others I am grateful too. Now the woads have a chance to survive against the Saxons, though they can't do it alone. Rest well Sir Knight, tomorrow will be a busy day."

Dagonet smiled at her, "Rest well scout, we wouldn't want you collapsing again any time soon." With that he left the wagon. Guinevere came in soon after with a raised eyebrow to Kat. Kat merely smirked and raised her own eyebrow at the other woman. Guinevere smiled and then lied down going to sleep near instantly. Kat tried to keep watch, but she too succumbed to sleep with a dagger in her hand, one that a certain knight had given her.


	3. Chapter 3

Again, I own nothing. Thanks for the reviews

Ice and Orders

The next morning Dagonet was awoken with a start as Lucan was pulled from his arms into the arms of Marius with a blade against the boys throat. A half dozen of Marius' mercenaries surrounded Dagonet preventing him from coming to the boy's aid. Suddenly an arrow stuck Marius in the chest and he released his grip on Lucan who ran to Dagonet's arms as the Roman fell to the ground dead. Guinevere emerged from the forest with her bow drawn and shot an arrow at the feet of the mercenaries that hesitated after Arthur demanded that they put down their weapons. From behind Guinevere Kat holding an empty bow looking at Dagonet and Lucan, she caught his gaze and held it for a few moments before disappearing into the forest to reappear to the side of Guinevere. Arthur soon had everything in hand and gave the mercenaries a choice, join them or die. The mercenaries wisely chose to join Arthur seeing how their employer was now dead. Tristan returned just then with the news of the Saxon getting closer. When he saw Marius' corpse he looked to Kat who met his gaze then looked to Lucan. Kat helped put Lucan in the wagon before climbing in herself. The caravan started moving again in attempts of out running the Saxons. Dagonet joined the caravan to continue treating the wounded and soothe the scared Lucan. Guinevere kept to the front of the wagon and was mostly unaware of Kat's conversation, but pleased that she was having one. She worried about Kat sometimes, she knew so little about her past, but what she did know was tragic. Kat opening up was good thing.

When they reached the ice lake Dagonet left Lucan in Kat's care. Slowly they crept across the frozen lake. When they had come half way Saxon interaction seemed unavoidable and the knights prepared for battle. Guinevere joined them and Kat stepped forward to join them as well.

"Not this time woad scout" Tristan said. Kat narrowed her eyes at him. "I had to carry you back to camp last night after you took out five, there are a lot more now, you aren't strong enough" Tristan continued meeting her glare.

"Please Kat," Guinevere said walking up to her, "Arthur has put Ganis in charge, but he'll need your help. You must get these people to the wall" Kat stared into Guinevere's eyes and glared at her until Guinevere moved to join the preparing knights. Dagonet approached her with a look of sorrow after sending Lucan back to the wagons.

"Not you too Dag" Kat mumbled.

"I need you Kat," Dagonet started staring into her eyes, "I need you to take care of Lucan, and if anything happens to me..." Kat cut him off with her fingers to his lips. Her eyes pleading with him not to finish that sentence. He took her hand in his, but didn't continue. She placed her other hand on the side of his scarred face and pulled him closer to her. After staring into each others' eyes for a moment she leaned forward and kissed him. Immediately he responded wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. All of the knights stared wide eyed at the scene and Guinevere looked amused. Too soon they pulled away from each other and Dagonet led her back to the wagon. With a quick kiss he left her to join the others and prepare for battle. Kat held on to Lucan as Dagonet and Guinevere and the rest of the knights faded from sight, knowing that she would never see them again.

Kat made her presence know to everyone, and they knew that she was on Ganis' side. There would not be any issues. With her duty fulfilled, she fell back to the end of the Caravan on a borrowed horse looking for a sign, a trace of an outcome.


End file.
